On July 10, 1856, in a small village hidden among the mountains of the Balkan regions, was born who is still considered to be the most important inventor of all time: Nikola Tesla. Unique, ingenious and creative, life brought injustice and misery that he did not deserve. Today, on what would be his 158th anniversary, Tesla is remembered with a strange feeling, a mixture of admiration and sadness.
As has happened with the greatest in history, ahead of his time, his work is recognized long after. Without further ado, this is a perfect occasion to remember some of Nikola Tesla's most important contributions and inventions, including some of the many he never patented, of course.
Alternating current
This is where it all began, and what ultimately caused such a stir at the 1893 World Expo in Chicago. A war then stabilized, between Edison's vision and Tesla's vision for how electricity is produced and distributed. The division can be summarized between costs and security:
The direct current that Edison (backed by General Electric) had been working on was costly over long distances and produced dangerous sparks from the required converter (called a commutator). In any case, Edison and his allies used the "dangers" of electric current to instill fear in Tesla's alternative: the Alternating Current.
As proof, Edison sometimes electrocuted animals at demonstrations, thus demonstrating the power of his invention ... Consequently, Edison gave the world the electric chair, while at the same time slandering Tesla's attempt to offer security at a lower cost.
Tesla responded by demonstrating that the AC (alternating current) was perfectly safe, passing current through his own body to produce light. The Edison-Tesla War (GE-Westinghouse) culminated in 1893 after more than a decade of illicit negotiations, stolen ideas, and the suppression of patents that Edison and his monetary interests exercised over Tesla's inventions. However, in spite of everything, it is the Tesla system that provides generation and distribution in the world in our modern era.
AC motor
Perhaps the first great creation of Tesla. According to his biographers, it all started when one of his professors assured him that it was impossible to create a motor powered by alternating current (AC) instead of the alternating direct current (DC). Sure that this was not the case, Tesla spent 2 years pondering the question, until, as he himself confessed, the solution came like a bolt of lightning: a rotating magnetic field that would allow powering an AC motor, before transforming in direct current. Tesla came to build the device mentioned in the previous point: the AC motor, an apparatus capable of converting a certain form of energy into mechanical energy of rotation. The creation of Tesla worked with alternating current creating magnetic poles that reversed themselves, without mechanical help, as DC motors needed it, forming a kind of armor (the rotating part of an electromechanical device) that circled around the motor. With the use of the rotating magnetic field taken directly into practice, Tesla created AC generators and transformers.
Light
Of course, he did not invent light itself, but what he invented was how light can be harnessed and distributed. Tesla developed and used fluorescent light bulbs in his laboratory about 40 years before the industry "invented" them. At the World Fair, Tesla presented the creation of the first neon signs. However, it is the Tesla coil that could be the most impressive and controversial invention. The Tesla coil is certainly something that big industry suppressed: the concept that Earth itself is a magnet that can generate electricity (electromagnetism) using frequencies as a transmitter. All that is needed at the other end is the receiver - like a radio set. In 1893, at the Chicago World's Fair, Tesla demonstrated that the transfer of electrical energy wirelessly was possible through the use of a series of phosphorus bulbs, a process he called electrodynamic induction. Above all, Tesla was a visionary and dreamed that one day, this technology would allow the transfer of energy over long distances, through the atmosphere, providing energy supplies to every corner of the planet, freely and free.
X-rays
While the invention of x-rays is credited to the great German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, the contributions of Tesla were fundamental in history. Almost a decade before the invention of x-rays, our protagonist developed several investigations in the field of electromagnetism, accounting, among other things, how important it was to consider the dangers inherent in the use of ionizing radiation in human flesh. Ionizing electromagnetic radiation was largely investigated in the late 1800s, but Tesla investigated the entire range. Everything from a precursor of Kirlian photography, which has the ability to document the strength of life, to what they now use in medical diagnostics, this was a transformational invention of which Tesla has played a central role. X-rays, like many of Tesla's contributions, stemmed from his belief that everything we need to understand the universe is practically all around us at all times, but we have to use our minds for real-world development and the devices to increase our innate perception of existence.
Radio
Guglielmo Marconi was initially accredited, and most believe that he is the inventor of radio to this day. However, the Supreme Court annulled Marconi's patent in 1943, when it was found that Tesla invented the radio in previous years to Marconi. The radio signals are just another frequency needed by a transmitter and a receiver, which Tesla also demonstrated in 1893 during a presentation at the National Electric Light Association. In 1897 Tesla applied for two US patents. 645,576 and 649,621. In 1904, however, in the US Patent Office revoked his decision, awarding Marconi a patent for the invention of the radio, possibly influenced by Marconi's financial backers in the States, which included Thomas Edison and Andrew Carnegie This also allowed the US government (among others) avoid having to pay the rights that were being claimed by Tesla.
In 1897, Tesla sent a wireless transmission signal from his laboratory, in New York, to a ship that sailed 40 km away on the Hudson River and this he would have achieved before, had it not been for the mysterious fire that 2 years before he destroyed his former laboratory. There were lost several creations of Tesla, including practically everything that we associate today with a radio, like antennas, tuners, and others. However, Nikola did not fully recreate the device, something that did Guglielmo Marconi, who is credited with the invention of the radio. Finally, in 1943, the Supreme Court of the USA ruled that the true patent would belong to Tesla, but the idea that Marconi had been the creator was already installed in the people.
Nikola Tesla worked throughout his life for science, for the advancement of knowledge and techniques. His whole life was devoted to the study of electricity and magnetism, as well as its possible applications that are largely used in our modern society.
In his death, messages came from all over the world, deploring the loss of a great genius. Three laureates with the Nobel Prize, Millikan, Compton, and James Frank, gave him one last tribute:
One of the most extraordinary spirits in the world, which has shown the way of important technical developments of the modern era.
It is difficult to find another man whose visions and inventions have had as many direct repercussions as those of Nikola Tesla on the lifestyle of all the populations of the industrialized countries.
As well said B.A. Behrend, president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers:
If we should take and eliminate from our industrial world the results of Mr. Tesla's work, the wheels of industry would stop, trains would be immobilized, our cities would be left in the shadows and our factories would die. His name marks a time in the advancement of electrical science. A revolution arises from this work.
Although his work is already disseminated in the Tesla museum in Belgrade, the truth is that there was nothing similar in North America. And since most of his contributions were in the US, many of his fans joined together some time ago to reconvert the Wardenclyffe tower into a large tribute museum. Once collected the $ 850,000 by Matthew Inman to acquire the site, a few weeks ago opened a collection period to get 10 million dollars, and thus complete the construction of the museum. With this money would be to pay a well-deserved tribute to one of the best inventors in history, fallen into disgrace by dying alone and full of debt in a hotel room in New York. Perhaps, years after his important work, we can put in his place one of the greatest geniuses we have ever seen. I have shown here a synthesis of the life and work of this GENIUS, the little we can do is know him and the work that has influenced colossally in the technological advance of the world (he continues to do so). From this humble blog, we give you the THANK YOU Mr. Tesla wherever you are.
